Momentum health Iflex Duathlon event #5

RESULT: 1st OVERALL

To say I was excited for this race would be a massive understatement. After being quite disappointed with my performance at the Xterra in Knysna I was very keen to put a better result in especially in my home town.

It was set to be a very tough race with the likes of Brand Du Plessis, Lieuwe Boonstra, Theo Blignaut, Jock Green and Daniel Carleton all hoping to get onto the podium.

The race format is a 5km Trail run, 30km MTB and finished with a 2.5km Trail run. The bike course was going to be the decisive discipline as it was a tough course with some big climbs and enjoyable single track.




The run started and we were quickly into a section of single track. I managed to stay in the front pack until we exited onto the fast roads. I didn't want to over do it on the first run and knew I couldn't match the pace of the top 3 guys on the run so I tried to limit my losses and save my legs for the bike. I entered transition 1m30s down on Brand and 1min behind Lieuwe.

I got onto the bike feeling good and was closer to the leaders then I had hoped. Knowing the bike course was so tough I wanted to hold back slightly on the 1st lap and attack the 2nd lap with everything I had left. With this in mind I caught and past Theo Blignaut about 2kms into the ride. He had unfortunately had bike issues and was on a borrowed bike which he didn't seem to comfortable on. After cresting the first small climb I could see both Lieuwe and Brand ahead. I caught Lieuwe at the bottom of the "mother in law" climb and sat with him till the top choosing not attack at this early stage and rather stay together till we caught Brand, which happened at the end of the next single track. I chose the final single track of the first lap to put in a small attack and managed to exit with a 15sec lead over the 2 chasers. I kept this gap into the turn around point for the second lap and then started to push the pace as much as I could, attacking the single track and climbs. The gap was steadily growing and by the top of the "mother in law" neither of the chasers was in sight.




Coming into transition I had built up a 2min cushion over Lieuwe and 6min over Brand who had experienced a technical difficulty out on the course. It was now down to the final run, I knew everyones legs would be hurting by this stage and just tried to keep a good strong pace. Entering the last quarter of the run I knew I had the race won and couldn't help but smile all the way to the line. I had given my all out on the course and had so badly wanted this win. There is no better feeling then achieving a goal you have set yourself.




It's sad to hear that Lieuwe will now be retiring from multi-sport as I have thoroughly enjoyed racing against him. He is a true competitor and always fun to chat to after the race is done. He will be missed at the races in the future.




Have to say a huge well done to my dad Russell White who managed to set a brilliant course and had the trails perfectly prepped for the athletes and over and above this still managed to win his age group. Also thanks to Thule South Africa as always for all their support and to the event organizers and sponsors, Momentum Health, I-Flex and Pepto Sport. Without these companies support, multi-sport wouldn't be growing as fast as it is.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

XTERRA KNYSNA

RESULT: 5th Overall

My build up to XTERRA Knysna was far from what I had planned due to injuries but I was still looking forward to testing myself against a fully stacked world class field.

I was very pleased the race had a mid day start as the weather had been extremely cold and wet in the days leading up to the race, but we were greeted by perfect weather on race day, although the course would still be extremely muddy.

It was very intimidating lining up at the start next to the likes of Conrad Stoltz, Dan Hugo, Kevin Evans, Lieuwe Boonstra, Raoul De Jongh, Daniel Carleton and Gareth Harrington to name just a few of the top athletes.

The 1st run consisted of a 3km loop with one very big climb and a very steep fast descent. My aim was to set a comfortable tempo ensuring I still had legs going onto the bike, which would be my stronger leg. Even with this in mind I covered the 1st km in 3min and could see Lieuwe and Conrad pulling away. After reaching the top of the climb Raoul had come past setting a great pace and had caught Dan up ahead.

I had a good transition and came out a few meters behind Dan. I quickly realized he wasn’t his normal self and made my move to chase after the guys ahead. Soon after Kevin came past me. I tried briefly to get on his wheel but there was no way I could climb at the speed he was maintaining. I was now lying 4th and kept my head down hoping to catch Lieuwe. About 4km from the finish I managed to bridge the gap and came into transition with a slight lead over him.

The 2nd run was a distance of 7.5km and I quickly felt my lack of preparation as the run went immediately up a very large climb. My legs weren’t responding and Lieuwe came back past dropping me to 4th. I tried hard to find a rhythm once we reached the top but it wasn’t happening. I was now into damage limitation mode trying hard to hold onto my position. But unfortunately with about 2km of the run left Raoul caught me and attacked hard dropping me down to 5th. I was very disappointed crossing the line in 5th just ahead of Dan. Looking at the positives I did have a good bike leg and I know I have a lot of room for improvement on my run.

It was a great few days away in Knysna and also really nice to catch up with everyone at the event. I left the venue with renewed energy and know I can produce better results in the future.

Thanks again to THULE South Africa for believing in me this year and allowing me to chase my dreams.

Bikes on the Thule rack and ready to head down to the start

TIME FREIGHT MULTISPORT SERIES EVENT # 1

RESULT: 2nd in MultiX event

My nerves were running wild before the 1st event in the Time Freight Multisport series at Albert Falls. I wasn’t quite where I had hoped to be with my running after having sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago and with the field being as strong as it was I knew I was going to be in for a lot of suffering.

I arrived at the picturesque Albert Falls to be greeted by an extremely cold morning with the cars temp gauge reading just 1ºC. Thankfully the sun warmed things up before the start.

The 1st run consisted of 2 loops. The 1st loop was fast and flattish with the 2nd loop being technical with a steep climb and descent. We started out into the 1st faster loop and immediately the pace was extremely fast. JP Ten Napel being the top runner he is broke away early and began opening a large gap. I settled into the 2nd bunch and tried to hang on for as long as I could. I came into transition in 7th place just behind Gareth Harrington and around 1m40s behind a flying Ten Napel.

After a quick transition I set off in 4th and set my sights on trying to catch the leader. It turned out to be an extremely fast bike course so I knew this was going to make the task of getting into the lead even tougher. 5km’s into the bike I caught a glimpse of JP and knew I was catching.

At the end of the 1st 10km loop of the bike the gap was down to 30secs. After making the catch about 3kms later I sat behind and waited for the climb to start to make an attack. I managed to get a gap on JP and worked hard to build up a lead that I could defend on the run.

Starting the final run I could feel straight away that I had over done it on the bike and the small 30sec gap I had built was not going to be enough to hold Ten Napel off and I jogged through the final run enjoying the magic terrain we were getting to race on, ending in 2nd behind a very strong JP Ten Napel. Gareth Harrington had a great race to end in 3rd.

All in all I wasn’t happy with my performance and still have a lot of work to do. But a big congrats has to go out to Max and his team for putting on yet another great event. Was also great to have the Powasol guys at the event to get all the bikes clean after the race. Looking forward to the next race at Shongweni on 21 August and hope to see you all there.

MTUNZINI BIG 5 MTB CLASSIC

RESULT: 1st OVERALL

Sunday welcomed the mountain bikers with spectacular weather for a winters morning. By the start of the race it was already very warm and everyone was looking forward to a hot days racing.

The 50km classic started off with a short neutral zone along the tar roads of the Zini estate and we were quickly unleashed onto the dirt roads around the estate. It started off with only myself and Nick Porteous willing to do any work on the front, so I knew with this being a fairly flat and fast course I had to try and split things up early. On the first climb of the day I put in a small attack to try whittle down the size of the group. We were now down to a group of 5 riders.

Unfortunately it was still only Nick who was willing to help on the front so up the next steep muddy climb I tried another attack and this time I got away on my own, so I set about maintaining a hard pace to try break up the chase group. After some time I could see there was a lone cyclist chasing me and it was Dave Leiman who also races for THULE South Africa as a mountain biker. I figured it would be smarter to work with Dave rather than attempt to stay out front alone, so I sat up and we then set about working together to get out of sight from the chasers.

It was a very enjoyable ride from then and we worked well together to maintain the gap. Coming into the last 6km we entered some fantastic ‘mangrove’ single track and I used this as my opportunity to make a break from Dave. I pushed extremely hard through the tight twisting single track and arrived at the finish with the win and a gap of 4mins over Dave, Nick Porteous came in for 3rd, a good effort after being on his own most of the way.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the event and look forward to the rest of the BIG 5 MTB series.

GREYTOWN MTB CLASSIC

RESULT: 1st OVERALL

I was very close to not racing on Sunday as I had been on Anti-Biotics the whole week for an infection and just for good measure as I stopped the tablets on Fri I started to get sick. Thankfully it was just a head cold and by Sunday morning I wasn’t feeling to bad so decided to give the race a go.

We arrived in Greytown to be greeted by very gloomy, cold and rainy weather. It was going to be another muddy and slippery race.

The race got off to a fairly conservative start and no one was to eager to push the pace in the cold conditions. On the first slight incline I lifted the pace a bit and 3 other riders went with me. My legs were feeling really good so on the next climb I surged again and it was down to just Andrew Warr and myself at the front.

We had a great time out front in the mud ooh’ing and aaah’ing at each others close calls and saves. We had both gone for fast rolling tyres rather then wet weather tyres, which was making things very entertaining. After the long slog up to the top of the mountain we were rewarded with some amazing single track along the side of the mountain and the ride home was pretty fast.

About 5kms out from the finish the cat and mouse games started with Andrew trying a few attacks up some of the climbs but my legs were good and I managed to stay on his wheel. I wanted to wait till the end to make my move. I lead out of the last single track, kept the pace high and turned into the final straight in front and kicked hard managing to cross the line in 1st.

It felt great to win a MTB classic again and Im having such a good time at the races so going to try fit as many as I can into my training plan.

DPHS MUDMAN 2011

RESULT: 1st Overall

It was a rough lead up to the DPHS MudMan for me, I had done 2 mountain bike races over the last 2 weeks and not felt great in either, then to top it off I came down with a stomach bug the week of the MudMan so not much training was done. It took a lot of work from everyone around me to keep me positive but Im so thankful they did.

It was going to be a very wet and cold race but that was exactly what I had hoped for to make sure bike skills came into play on the fairly fast bike course. All the top guys were there as well as the addition of some German triathletes who are out in SA training.

The water was freezing so I was very happy I had packed my wetsuit. The start was frantic and it took a while to find some space. After pushing hard I found the feet of one of the German athletes and felt comfortable at his pace throughout the swim. I came out the water in 4th after having my best swim of the series.

I got onto the bike in 2nd along with a German athlete and Ryan Redman who was doing the first 2 of the 3 disciplines, great to see him healing up after his injury. I pushed hard early on the bike and I was elated to see that my legs were responding and feeling great. I quickly caught and passed the leader and set about building as big a gap as possible. The 1st lap was pretty slippery with all the mud but the 2nd lap after hundreds of bikes had been through was a different story, the lappers were keeping me highly entertained while many of them lay sprawled out in the mud laughing. Was great to see everyone having such fun in those conditions.

Exiting onto the run I had over 5mins on 2nd place and could enjoy myself out on the final leg. It was like running on ice in some sections so I was quite careful not to cause any unnecessary injury. The 2nd lap I could push harder chasing Brad Schuit and Justin Porteous who were on their 1st lap, its always fun having someone to chase. Unfortunately there was some confusion at the finish of the run and I was sent on the wrong route by the marshals but I still managed to get to the finish 1st with 3mins over Daniel Carleton and Justin Porteous a further 2min30 back in 3rd.

This result meant I won the series with Daniel and Justin tieing for 2nd. It was another awesome MudMan series and Im sad its over. I can’t wait for next year.

Just need to say a huge thanks to Coach Russ, Karen Keyter (chiropractor) and Angelique (massage therapist) they turned me round from feeling absolutely broken the week before the race to having probably my best race of the year.

CORDWALLES MUDMAN 2011

RESULT: 1st Overall

After finishing 2nd in 2010 I arrived at Midmar Dam wanting to move up to the top step of the podium and back up my win at the Epworth Mudman. I left home with the rain pouring down which excited me hoping that would make the usually very fast bike a bit more technical and suited to me but it ended up being overcast and cool at the race venue which made it very easy race conditions.

It turned out that this was the biggest Mudman ever held with well over 1400 athletes, great news for multisport in general. Along with the usual opponents of Daniel Carleton and Justin Porteous. (Unfortunately Ryan Redman was sidelined to just the swim due to a knee injury) there was the addition of 2 top road triathletes, Henri Schoeman and Glen Gore, they are both amazing swimmers and with the bike being pretty easy this had me a little nervous and I would have to give it everything on the bike to pull them back.

The midmar water was the cleanest I have ever experienced it, which made the swim quite pleasant. I exited the water in the 2nd pack but knew I had to get a move on when I got a 2min time gap to the leader Henri who had blitzed the swim.

I exited the transition with Justin Porteous glued to my wheel and I knew I couldn’t afford to play cat and mouse with him and had to focus on chasing down the leaders. We got by Glen fairly early in the 1st lap but we still had to chase hard after Henri. The catch was made early in the 2nd lap and I used a climb to attack hard and ensure he didn’t stick with Justin and I. This seemed to snap the ‘elastic’ as he was soon out of sight. Unfortunately later I heard Henri had a big crash and broke his collarbone, a sad blow as he was having a good race. Now it seemed to be down to Justin and I and it looked like the run would decide it. But then about a km from the finish of the bike Justin miss-read the run bike split and took the wrong turn I quickly shouted to him that he was on the wrong track as well as the many marshals that were at the split.

I exited the transition onto the run and was given a time gap of 30seconds to the now chasing Justin. It was going to be a tough run to hold him off but my legs were feeling great and I knew he would have had to have worked extremely hard on the bike to stay in contact. After the one big climb on the run route I took a quick glance back and could see the gap had increased and I could enjoy the run back to the finish, ending up with a 51second gap over Justin in 2nd. Daniel Carleton had fought hard for 3rd overall another great result for the Russell White Academy. Finally having my race kit and giving THULE the coverage they deserve for all the help they have given me added to the sweetness of the victory, as well as having so many friends and family at the event making it a fun filled day.

The Cordwalles crew did a great job with the route and organization and were rewarded with the number of entrants and smiles on everyone’s faces after the race. These are truly amazing events and I hope to see everyone out at the DPHS MudMan on the 13th April.

Article and Pic in the NATAL WITNESS newspaper